What is all this about?
I know what the awards are but I dont understand the "why" of it all...
Whats the purpose?
Former co-founder of Lastminute.com Brent Hoberman and inventor of the wind-up radio Trevor Baylis were two names in just a handful of science and tech folk to be handed gongs in the 2015 New Year's honours list. Both were awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the second shiny medal for Baylis after receiving …
To recognise people who have made a worthwhile contribution to the United Kingdom and so deserve recognition. A good proportion of those are normal people like lollipop ladies for their contributions (perhaps the Queen has a soft spot for lollipop ladies,but every year there always seems to be one that has spent the last 40 years helping children cross the road). .
A bad proportion also seem to be for civil servants as a for of mutal back patting which hasn't really changed since the days of "Yes, Minister"
"James Hacker: I'm not going to approve any honour to any civil servant in this department who hasn't earned it.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: What do you mean "earned it"?
James Hacker: I mean "earned it". "Done something to deserve it".
Sir Humphrey Appleby: [indignantly] But that's unheard of!"
Mod up for the YM quote ;-)
Perhaps it is just about keeping the "system" going. Monarchy only persists because it seeks to create the illusion of "having always been around", "will always be around" and "being more important than you".
Your Majesty,
I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against 'Cold Turkey' slipping down the charts.
With love. John Lennon of Bag
P.
It's about - given the proportions of media coverage - trying to subliminally suggest support for the Government by the types the great unwashed think of as their own. Usually the likes of Joan Collins. Had things worked out differently, Michael Jackson would probably got a mention at some point. John Hurt you could understand for Quentin Crisp and John Merrick. The rarer example of The Beatles was not so much for conning the majority of naifs into thinking HMG is 'for the people', as for hoping to compromise anti-establishment types, to make them accessories to the bullshit.
Joan Collins - classic Thatcherite. God save us from right-wing thesps!
I'm pretty sure his was the first functioning 'clockwork' radio; a spring ran a little generator, now they are the usual hand crank generators that charge batteries.
The idea was to get them handed out particularly in Africa to disseminate advice about AIDS prevention. He also helps or sponsors inventors and is a genuine British Garden Shederist.